Craziest of all was when American hotshot Ilia Malinin finished in eighth place after Friday’s free skate — a “Game of Thrones” “Red Wedding” on ice.

Ilia Malinin stumbled under Olympic pressure as underdog Mikhail Shaidorov captured gold in a shocking Olympic men’s figure skating final at Milano-Cortina 2026.

Figure skating fans are not happy with the Olympic ice quality that saw over a dozen men fall during the free skate finale.

The figure skating community described the shock they felt watching Ilia Malinin’s mistake-ridden performance Friday night, trying to help fans understand how the sport's most dominant athlete performed so far below expectations.

Mikhail Shaidorov became Kazakhstan’s first Olympic gold medallist in men’s figure skating after triumphing at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics 2026.View on euronews

The Men's Figure Skating at the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics has another free skate schedule for Friday, Feb. 13.

2026 Olympic figure skating schedule: The 2026 Winter Olympics are happening now. Here's the full schedule for watching the figure skating. The post 2026 Olympic Figure Skating — Full Schedule on TV appeared first on Heavy Sports.

Malinin’s incredible performance in the Free Skate on Sunday helped give the United States its second straight Olympic gold in the Team Event, narrowly squeaking by the strong Japanese squad. Kagiyama actually posted a better score than Malinin in the Short Program late last week.

Team USA figure skating sensation Ilia Malinin entered Friday as an overwhelming favorite to take home gold in the men’s free skate at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned.